An evening walk through Hyde Park

Sunday 24th January 2015

From the Natural History Museum we decided to walk back to Victoria Station, via Hyde Park. It was beginning to get dark when we got to the Serpentine, the long lake in the park. Nevertheless, there were plenty of people there feeding the swans, geese and ducks.

Natural History Museum

Sunday 24th January 2016

After lunch at the Brompton Food Market we headed to the Natural History Museum, one of a number of nationally acclaimed establishments in South Kensington.



It's a busy place and we joined a long queue to enter. Fortunately, the queue moved quickly. We saw only a small part of the museum but I was especially interested in the sections dealing with prehistoric animals, though we saw other sections as well.

Brompton Food Market

Sunday 24th January 2016

We decided to go to the Natural History Museum and after an irritatingly long rail and tube journey, we arrived in South Kensington. We decided to have lunch first and found the Brompton Food Market on Thurloe Place. Don't get carried away into thinking it is a big food market. It isn't. It is a cafe and food shop. We sat at a table on the patio out the back. Food was reasonable but not only were London prices applicable, so too were Kensington prices.

Marlins Hotel in Bournemouth

This is another video from last year I've just got round to editing. In September I was in Bournemouth for a conference for 4 days and I stayed at the Marlins Hotel. This is the video I filmed about it.

Hotel Mercure, Paris

Last August we went to Paris for a weekend and stayed in the Hotel Mercure, near the Gare du Nord. I've just got round to editing the video about the hotel so here it is.

Blanca Bar

Saturday 23rd January 2016

From Trafalgar Square, we headed up to Leicester Square and found Blanca Bar nearby. We called in for lunch. It was very quiet when we went in.



We selected a meal from the menu and I went to the bar to put in the order and pay. And then I found what we were charged was a great deal more than what the menu said it should have been. "That's the service fee," I was told. I paid and then checked through every detail on the menu. There was no mention of any service fee, never mind a fee being automatically added. A tip is something to be left at the end of a meal when a customer can make a judgement as to how good the service was. It should not be an automatic charge that is quietly added to the bill.



The food was okay but given their policy on service charges, I can't recommend anyone eats there.

St James's Park and Trafalgar Square

Saturday 23rd January 2016

I was in London again on 22nd - 25th January and on Saturday 23rd we headed into town and took a walk through St James's Park, in the neighbourhood of Buckingham Palace. There are lots of geese and ducks on the lake and plenty of squirrels that will take any food you care to give them.











From St James's Park we headed over to Trafalgar Square. This meant navigating the traffic. Fortunately there are plenty of pedestrian crossings.